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No police officers to be laid off

Sandusky city commissioners recently assured police commanders of their intentions to avoid layoffs for all department personnel — be it officers, detectives or others — in 2014.

Andy Ouriel

Sandusky

Jan 20, 2014

About a month ago, commissioners proposed axing one full-time police officer from the payroll.

An estimated $70,000 cut to police services would help eat away at Sandusky’s $1.1 million shortfall in the 2014 budget.

But commissioners also reasoned with Sandusky police Chief John Orzech: They’d refrain from making layoffs as long as the top cop could slash $70,000 elsewhere.

Luckily for 55 part- and full-time police employees, Orzech found $72,500 in savings. This includes officers forgoing taxpayer-funded physicals, estimated at $32,000, in 2014.

Orzech needed the police union’s permission to offer up these cuts.

“A solid working relationship and partnership will be needed amongst the administration, commission and union as we continue to move forward and evaluate our expenses and services that we provide to our citizens and business community,” Orzech said.

Commissioners, delighted with Orzech’s solution, decided to backtrack from reducing staffing levels and tentatively agree with his proposal.

“It’s important that our citizens know we mistakenly talked about getting rid of a police officer, and that was the wrong approach,” commissioner Dick Brady said. “We got a savings without losing one officer. We are just as safe tomorrow as we are today” Other departments aren’t so lucky. Chief among them: The fire department, where four full-time firefighters are set to lose their positions by May thanks to Sandusky’s fiscal crisis. A final vote on a balanced budget, which includes $1.1 million in cuts, must occur by March.